There are certain prior art Patents for hand skinner devices which have been developed for the meat packing industry, but none of them have ever found commercial acceptance.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,071,923 shows a hand skinner device in which the skinning blade and gripper roll are offset with respect to the handle. U.S. Pat. No. 4,186,461 discloses a two-way hand skinning device, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,451,953 discloses a hand skinner device having a cam lock for locking the blade in place.
However, these prior art devices are somewhat heavy and cumbersome in construction and are expensive to manufacture. It is for these reasons that these prior art devices have never received commercial acceptance.